R’ Leibel Bistritzky, 86, OBM

By COLlive reporter

R’ Leibel Bistritzky, a long-time Lubavitcher chossid who merited to save the lives and assist many Jews, including the Rebbe, has passed away on Monday, 4 Sivan 5773.

He was 86.

His family originated in Russia, where on orders of the Czar, they adapted the name of a gentile land owner where the father of the family worked.

Yehuda Leib Bistritzky was born in Hamburg, Germany, to R’ Mordechai who was a Boyan chossid and Shifra who stemmed from a Chabad family and who had a close friendship with Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson OBM, wife of the Rebbe.

His father owned a company called “Scandinavian Corporation Bistritzky & Co.” which was in the business of oil and train oil. Leibel went to Talmud Torah at the Grindelhof.

His son Yehuda Leib went to the Talmud-Tora-Secondary School until he was thirteen. Then, being on a business trip, Markus Bistritzky sent a telegram to his family ordering them to Rotterdam. From Holland the family went to New York. All were saved.

When anti-Semitism became unbearable in Germany, the family relocated to Rotterdam in Holland, via Antwerp, where Shifra’s parents lived. It was the beginning of 1938, only a few months before the Kristallnacht pogrom.

They then managed to immigrate to New York, only to worry there about the lack of kosher food. First living in Manhattan, then Boro Park, Leibel got to meet the Frierdiker Rebbe for the first time at the age of 13. The encounter had such a great impact on the boy, that he decided to become a Lubavitcher chossid.

Leibel went to learn in Yeshivas Tomchei Tmimim Lubavitch and regularly attended farbrengens of the Frierdiker Rebbe, although youngsters were not allowed in. Rebbetzin Nechama Dina Schneerson helped him get in.

In 5707 he married Ita Travis, a daughter of a Lubavitcher who had dealings in the oil industry in Texas and who lived at the time in Chicago. The Frierdiker Rebbe blessed the shidduch.

Before their wedding, the couple and their parents went into Yechidus with the Frierdiker Rebbe who told them “this is a private simcha by me” and blessed the wedding with “great happiness” and “be well.”

Leibel was involved with the printing of Chabad seforim and thus became close with the Rebbe, even after he assumed leadership of Chabad-Lubavitch on Yud Shvat 5710. “You don’t have to wait in line so long. Knock on the door whenever you want and come in,” the Rebbe once told him.

He owned Bistritzky’s Kosher Gourmet Food of the Lower East Side of Manhattan which was one of the earliest kosher food specialty stores. The store used to close every day at 4:00 PM for mincha, earning a mention in an economics textbook and The New Yorker magazine.

He was the founder of the Crown Heights chapter of Hatzalah, the volunteer Emergency Medical Service (EMS) organization that has saved many lives over the years. Bistritzky himself served on the medical team that treated the Rebbe after the 1992 stroke.

After living in Crown Heights for most of his life, he has moved Jerusalem in recent years.

He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Ita Bistritzky, and children Mrs. Miriam Sheindel Nelkin – Toronto, Canada; R’ Yosef Yitzchok Bistritzky – Flatbush, NY; R’ Avrohom Yisroel (Yingy) Bistritzky – Crown Heights; Mrs. Raizy Greenwald – Rechovot, Israel; Mrs. Ruchama Clapman – Five Towns, NY; Mrs. Devora Leah (Z.C.) Cohen – Aventura, Florida; R’ Menachem Mendel Bistritzky – Five Towns, NY; Rabbi Shlomo Mordechai Bistritzky – Shliach in Agoura Hills, CA; R’ Schneur Zalman Bistritzky – New York, NY; grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren.

His eldest son, haRav haGaon haChossid Rabbi Levi Bistritzky OBM, passed away in 2002. He was one of the Rebbe’s Shluchim to Israel and served as Chief Rabbi of Tzfas and was a respected author and authority on halacha and kashrus.

R’ Leibel traveled to his hometown of Hamburg in 2012 to witness his grandson, Rabbi Shlomo Bistritzky being inaugurated as Chief Rabbi of Germany’s second to largest city.

The levaya will take place Monday in Jerusalem.

Email for nichum aveilim or to share memories and stories: [email protected], or fax: 1212-202-3531.

Shiva:
Rivkah Rhines and Miriam Nelken will be sitting shiva at the home of Rivkah Rhines in Boro Park 1348 51st Street Boro Park.

Miriam Nelken will be there till 6pm today and will then be traveling home to Toronto. Rivkah Rhines will be sitting until 5 pm tomorrow.

Yossi Bistritzky will be sitting shiva in his home on Tuedsay 8am shachris, 2pm mincha. 1350 east 27th St between M and N.

Baruch Dayan Haemes.